by Teya Tapler
It had been easier going up. Evan would grab on a stone and pull herself or just crawl up the stairs. Going down was tricky and she had to choose her steps carefully. She adjusted her backpack, bent her knees slightly and began the descent. Concentrated on her movements she didn’t notice that wasn’t the path she usually took climbing down. There was supposed to be a big snake-head shaped stone right there and another one that looked like.… Suddenly the stone she moved onto gave in and Evan felt as if she’d stepped in mid-air. She lost her balance and fell: closing her eyes, thinking about the bruises she would have after rolling all the way down to the bottom of the pyramid. To her surprise nothing touched her body until she landed with a thud. Her fall was smooth and felt like flying but her landing was not graceful. She had fallen inside the pyramid and twisted her ankle settling on the ground.
Evan moaned and opened her eyes seeing darkness everywhere. Her eyes darted around with fear until the blue sky and the bright day greeted them from high above. Laying on a bright spot in the middle of a dark and sinister place she felt the ground nearby. All she could touch were dust and dirt. Her nose wrinkled: she hated being dirty.
“Hello?” Evan cried.
Not even an echo came back.
Fear crept in. She was alone. She was afraid of all the things in the dark she couldn’t see. Knowing she was in the rain forest brought images of various carnivorous animals to her mind. She imagined them waiting quietly in the dark, then pouncing at her when she wasn’t looking in their direction.
Her ankle reminded of its injury: the sharp pain shoot up her leg all the way to her brain. She sat up, pulled her backpack closer and started rubbing her ankle, trying to ease the throbbing. Her breathing was heavy and her heart beat rapidly. Trembling with fear, Evan looked around once more. Her eyes had started to adapt to the darkness, but still her surroundings looked like various hues of gray. Everything was gray, except the colorful lighted spot she was sitting on. There, she could see herself surrounded by dust and dirt.
Evan looked up. About 15 feet above was the opening she had fallen through. It had jagged edges from the bricks that had given in under her weight. She stood up, her left ankle too sore to bear her weight, and adjusted her stance to stand primarily on her right foot. Evan cupped her hands to her mouth and shouted toward the opening, “He-elp! He-elp! Is anyone out there! Help me, ple-a-se!”
Of course, there was no one there. Evan knew that very well. That was why she had chosen that pyramid as her safe house, because it was so isolated and relatively far from the location of the archeological dig and their camp.
“He-elp! He-elp! Is anyone out there?” She kept on crying, refusing to give up.
“Hello? Where are you?” Suddenly she heard a faint voice in the distance.
“I’m down here! I’m down here!” Evan cried louder.
After a while, a head appeared in the opening. It was impossible to distinguish its features, because of all the light behind it, but its contours and the husky voice seemed familiar.
“Oh, there you are!” the head said. “Are you okay?”
Evan sat down and rubbed her ankle. It still hurt, but somehow the presence of another person was already making her feel better. “I’m okay. It’s just my ankle.”
“I’ll come down and get you up here in a minute,” the voice said, and the head disappeared from the opening. A few minutes later, a rope rolled from the opening and her savior started climbing down to her. “You’re lucky, Miss Shtuttgart,” he said when his feet touched the ground and he faced her, “that I was passing by and heard you.”
Oh, no! It’s Zander.
Zander: the helpful guy who was digging, driving, and fixing stuff as needed, the one always saying “Yes” whenever her parents asked him to do something. The one person at the dig who could have invited her to a plane ride and never did. The one who always wore what seemed like the same set of black jeans and black T-shirt that were permanently dirty and addressed her like the teachers at school as Miss Shtuttgart.
He kneeled to look at her ankle and gently massaged it to feel the bones inside. As his face entered the bright spot she saw that his beard had started to show. He looked as if his face hadn’t seen a razor for couple of days.
“Yeah, you’re lucky it isn’t broken. With proper care you’ll be up and running in no time,” Zander concluded.
Great, just like that wretched car he fixed a few weeks ago! I will be up and running in no time. He treats me like a car, Evan thought. She pretended to smile. “That’s reassuring.”
Zander looked around, but he couldn’t see much in the dark. “If I tie you to the rope, can you hold tight until I pull you up?” he asked.
“You know me! I’m a strong girl!” She showed her right bicep and grinned.
Oh, what am I talking about? She thought. I need Kevin to drive me into the sunset.
Zander helped her get closer to the rope and tied it under her arms. The light beige color of the rope stood out nicely on her green T-shirt. It cut right across the forehead of the yellow smiley face that was looking right at him.
“Now, if you stay here, on one foot, until I get up, I’ll pull you up in no time,” he said and climbed up the rope. When he reached the top, she heard him say, “I’ll start pulling you up shortly,” before he disappeared.
Evan stood there on one foot, tied to the rope, and looked up to the opening. Black clouds were gathering hiding the previously lovely blue sky. The weather sure changed quickly at that latitude. Heavy drops began to fall one after another. Evan closed her eyes and tried to think happy thoughts when something hit her on the head and she fell.
Lying down, she rubbed her head and slowly opened her eyes. The rain had stopped as suddenly as it had started. The rope was lying next to her; the whole rope. Both ends were down there with her. She looked up and didn’t see Zander.
It had been too good to be true. When had Zander ever been good to me? Does he treat me like a princess? Wait that would be too much for him. He compared me to a car just a few minutes ago.
Evan’s thoughts spiraled down.
Miss Evangeline Shtuttgart, he won’t be coming back.
“Hey, are you okay?” Evan heard Zander’s husky voice again.
No, she wasn’t okay. Especially not now, when she had the whole rope and he was up there. If she could have climbed up that rope, she would have gotten up there first.
“If you’re below the opening, could you please move aside? I’m coming down again.” After a while, Zander’s voice was followed by two thuds on the ground close to Evan. The first one was a smaller and lighter thud. The second one was much heavier and louder followed by, “Damn! The surface felt softer earlier.”
“Oh, there you are. Are you okay?” Evan asked sarcastically. She couldn’t see him, but she had felt a wave of dust from her right when he had come down, so she faced that way.
A rummaging sound followed, then a click, and she was blinded by a flashlight.
“Sorry!” Zander quickly removed the light beam off her face. “I didn’t know where you were.” He came closer, untied the rope from her chest and felt her shiver. He pulled a dry jacket out of his soaked and muddy backpack and put it over her wet and shivering shoulders. “Here, take this. It’ll warm you up”.
It was a summer jacket, probably black again like everything he wore. It made her feel warm. “Thank you,” she said, quietly looking down at her ankle.
He got up and started browsing around with the flashlight. They were in a cubical room, 15 by 15 by 15 feet. Each wall had nine squares in three rows by three squares. He looked up and then down moving methodically the light from the torch. The ceiling and the floor also had nine squares. The middle square in the ceiling had a jagged opening where they had come in through and he noticed that both of them were occupying the middle square on the floor, too.
“I was thinking that we could—” Evan shifted from the middle square to one of the adjacent squares on the floor.
“W-what was tTHat?” she stuttered.
“Are you okay?” Zander asked her calmly.
“Ye-yes” she stuttered a lie then moved two steps closer and looked him in the eye. “What is all this? Where are we?”
He sat down on the middle tile, cleared the mud next to him with bare hands, and pulled her to sit on the clean spot. “It’s an ancient Mayan pyramid,” he said while wiping his muddy hands off his pants.
“I know that. We’re in Mexico and this is where the Mayans lived.”
“Yeah … the Mayan priests didn’t want ordinary people to know their secrets, so they came up with innovative ways to protect these secrets from the outside world.”
“And?” she asked.
“This pyramid was the one used for human sacrifices and was the home of the high priests of that time. Your father was thinking that the pearl might have been here until—”
“Oh, ph-le-aze,” Evan got irritated. His explanations sounded just like her father’s. “My father this, my father that.” She moved away from Zander toward an adjacent piece that was still intact.
“If I were you, I wouldn’t even think about stepping on it until we figure out the right move,” Zander said calmly.
Evan wanted to get away from Zander, to get out. It was dark and cold and dirty in here. She wanted to go back home, she wished to be in a warm and cozy place, watching the news and expressing her creativity with nail polish. She’d rather…The recent feeling of her dangling over the metal spikes overpowered all her wishes; she quietly moved back next to him. “What do we do next?” she looked at her shoes. The once beautiful pink tennis shoes were now a weird gray color with muddy, dark gray spots all over them. Nothing around her was as she wanted it to be.
“The way these priests protected their secrets was by creating a string of logical puzzles around them. Only the right answer guaranteed access to the next room.”
“…and spared the life of the intruder,” Evan mouthed, looking at the metal spikes below.
“We came here from a center piece and landed on a center piece. The most logical way will be to get out through another center piece on one of the walls,” he said, while moving the light from one wall to another. Evan followed the light with her eyes. The walls were at least five feet away and their center pieces were five feet above the floor. With her five feet six inches height, she didn’t feel too confident of a positive outcome.
“Do you have any ideas?” she asked.
“That piece crumbled pretty fast, didn’t it? Even before you moved your full weight onto it?” Zander responded with questions.
“First I wanted to step on it and then it wasn’t there anymore.” Evan said.
“Let’s see, then, if there is any other solid plate around us,” Zander started throwing the brick pieces around them at the rest of the floor squares. One after another, the tiles he hit wore down, revealing a forest of metal spikes below. The noise of falling stones hitting metal rods filled the room. Evan screamed and moved closer to Zander. When everything quieted down and the dust settled they were on a five by five foot island besieged by a sea of metal spikes barely visible in the dim light below, surrounded by them like a pack of hungry predators.
Zander rummaged in his soaked backpack and took out a surprisingly dry yo-yo. He gave Evan the flashlight and started pulling the laces off his wet hiking boots.
“What are you doing?” Evan asked.
“I think that a tap on a middle square should tell us if it’s the right way to go, and there are no more bricks around.” He tied the shoe laces to each other and then one of them to the end of the yo-yo string.
“And if it isn’t?” Evan asked.
“I’ll think of something,” Zander stood up and went close to one of the edges of the center square. He looked down at the spikes, then up to the center square on the wall and started spinning the yo-yo. Initially he spun it down and up, then gradually changed the angle until he could slam the yo-yo at that center square. The square didn’t break. It didn’t move. Nothing happened.
Zander moved to the right and stood at the edge again.
“Point the flashlight in another direction. My shadow hides everything.” He said.
Evan wiped clean the mud from the flashlight and turned it to one of the other walls. “Better?”
He nodded and aimed again repeating the same maneuver. The yo-yo spun down and up above the metal spikes then gradually Zander changed the angle until he could slam it at the center square of the wall in front of him. They waited quietly after the hit. The square didn’t break. It didn’t move. Again, nothing happened.
Evan sighed.
“Don’t be discouraged. There’re two more walls.” Zander said.
“And then what?” She spread her arms.
“I’ll think of something,” he aimed at the center square of the third wall.
He moved the yo-yo the same way he did before and was able to tap the center square with good force. They didn’t have to wait long as the cover of the center tile on the third wall crumbled and fell. Evan shuddered as debris hit the metal spikes below and the sound of heavy rain drops falling on a tin roof faded away. When she lifted her eyes the cover of the center square was gone, revealing a corridor. That was their only way out and it looked like a monster’s jaws.
“I think we found the exit.” Zander put the yo-yo and the rope back into his backpack and pulled her up. “We’ve got to move.”
Discouraged by her observations, Evan hesitated for a moment when a beam of light entered the room through the opening in the ceiling. Their surroundings shone in full color before a loud thunder deafened them and shook the pyramid. She flinched. Her feet slipped on the mud. Evan’s body leaned away from the safe zone and the thought of falling on the metal spikes entered her mind.
“Are you okay?” Zander’s hand pulled her to safety. The flashlight dangled on his wrist, casting their shadows from wall to wall.
“Yes” the huge rain drops falling from the sky hid her answer. It was time to leave.
Zander carefully descended into the opening below. “Get on my back and hold on tight,” he moved his backpack to his chest.
Evan’s hands clasped around his neck and her legs wrapped around his waist, her backpack dangled behind her. She held on tight, trying not to suffocate him, afraid to look down or up or left or right.
Zander measured the spikes between him and the wall with the corridor and put one foot on two spikes. It wasn’t easy to balance. He walked slowly, adjusting his weight on one foot before moving the other one ahead.
With eyes closed she felt his every move, counted his every step. She thought she had stopped breathing, trying not to distract him
“Now get up on my shoulders.” Evan heard his voice and opened her eyes. They were some four feet below the corridor. “Take the rope, stand up and pull yourself into that opening. You should be able to reach it.”. Zander held onto the wall with one hand helping her with the other. Evan slowly stepped on his shoulders and apprehensively stood up.
“It’d be okay to hold on to the wall,” he said.
The wall looked slippery and distant. It seemed to move when she stretched her arm to reach it. Evan felt dizzy and lost her balance.
“
Go slower,” Zander helped her steady herself.
Evan took a deep breath and calmed down. With his help, that seemed possible. She stood up again and stretched her arms. The wall felt solid, and the opening was closer than it appeared before. She pulled herself up and in. The corridor was a four-foot-wide round pipe. Sitting comfortably, she dangled her feet down and took the rope out of her backpack. “Now what?” Evan said.
“Could you hold one end of the rope as I climb up?” he asked.
“Sure,” she said.
“Tie it around your waist and throw the other end to me.” Before he finished speaking, the other end of the rope hit him on the head. He grabbed it with both hands, unhooked his shoes off the spikes and started climbing.
Evan sat on the bottom of the pipe, a few feet inside, pressing her mud-covered feet to one wall and her back to the other. It wasn’t easy to stay still. Every time Zander pulled the rope going up it burned her body through her damp T-shirt, pulling her down toward him. She kept quiet and didn’t complain; it was her turn to help him.
Soon Zander was up and she hugged her knees to make space for him.
“Here—take the rope.” Evan greeted him.
Zander put the rope in his backpack. “Let’s go! We’ve got to crawl through. Do you want to lead?” He asked.
Evan grabbed the flashlight and without taking it off his wrist waved it around to investigate their new surroundings. The corridor was dry and there was no mud, only dust and dirt. There was also another thing she didn’t like—spiders. “Could you please go first?” She asked politely, hoping that he would be cleaning the way for her.
They started crawling in the pipe, Zander ahead and Evan close behind.
“The pipe splits,” he stopped after a while and turned toward her, “I’ll go and see what’s in this direction. Here, take the flashlight.” He moved into the junction and gave her the flashlight. “Wait for me here. You’ll be safe. I’ll be back in few minutes.”
“Just don’t touch anything!” she tried to joke.
He smiled in the dark and left.
Here she was sitting in the middle of the pipe’s junction all alone with a flashlight in her hands. Evan was afraid. She was afraid to touch anything, afraid to look at anything. Everywhere she looked she saw dust and dirt.